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The Saskatchewan Roughriders will have five new assistant coaches for the 2023 CFL season.
The team’s coaching staff announced Tuesday features newcomers in Andre Bolduc (run game co-ordinator and running backs coach), Del Cowsette (defensive line coach), Naaman Roosevelt (offensive assistant), Drew Tate (receivers coach) and Anthony Vitale (offensive line coach).
Bolduc has 22 years of coaching experience, including the past nine seasons with the Montreal Alouettes. He also served as assistant offensive co-ordinator, receivers coach and special-teams assistant during his time in Montreal.
Before joining the Als, he spent time coaching at the Université de Montréal, Collège Montmorency and the University of Sherbrooke. Before becoming a coach, he played six seasons in the CFL with Ottawa, Edmonton and Montreal.
Cowsette is preparing for his first CFL season after 16 years in the college ranks at the Air Force Academy, Maryland, Albany and Hampton. He also coached in the UFL with the Virginia Destroyers.
During his playing career, Cowsette had NFL stints with Washington, the New York Giants, Tampa Bay and Chicago.
Roosevelt joins the Roughriders’ staff after serving as a guest coach at the team’s 2022 training camp. He played 67 games with Saskatchewan between 2015 and 2019, catching 301 passes for 4,134 yards and 20 touchdowns. His playing career also includes 20 games in the NFL.
Tate, who’s best remembered as a CFL quarterback, becomes the Roughriders’ receivers coach. After retiring from the CFL in 2018, he served as a college coach at Northern Iowa and Tennessee-Martin. He also coached with the Spring League’s Alphas and was the quarterbacks coach for the B.C. Lions in 2019.
A two-time Grey Cup champion (2007, 2014), he had CFL stints with Calgary, Ottawa and Saskatchewan.
Vitale was the Edmonton Elks’ offensive line coach in 2022 after serving as a guest coach at Saskatchewan’s training camp from 2017 to 2019. He previously had collegiate stints at Eastern New Mexico, Delaware State and South Baptist.
Defensive co-ordinator Jason Shivers, offensive co-ordinator/quarterbacks coach Kelly Jeffrey, special-teams co-ordinator Kent Maugeri, and assistant coaches Deion Melvin and Marcus Klund round out head coach Craig Dickenson’s staff.
The football operations department comprises vice-president of football operations and general manager Jeremy O’Day, with Paul Jones and Kyle Carson as his assistants.
The Roughriders have a new head athletic therapist, but he’s a familiar face in Regina. Greg Mayer, the former athletic therapist with the Regina Pats, joins the Roughriders after working more than 1,500 games in the WHL.
